The Commission on Foreign Interference heard this week the Trudeau Liberals are dismissive of allegations Canadians’ democratic rights ‘were trampled on by foreign actors.’Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole testified foreign interference cost the party “a certain number of seats” in the 2021 election, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.Internal federal memos confirmed Conservatives were targetted by a Chinese language slander campaign claiming O’Toole planned to cut diplomatic relations with Beijing.“It is my view a certain number of seats were lost, yes,” testified O’Toole. “We knew it was happening. Folks within the government knew there was a level of foreign interference occurring. I think we owe it to the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Canadians it was targetted at, we owed it to them to warn them.”“To suggest an election is fair and free from foreign interference is not accurate if some people are impacted whether or not it flipped the result in a riding or in a few ridings. Each vote matters.”O’Toole testified his party was never told of the security warning.“This was not raised to our attention,” he said. “In fact we were raising instances of foreign interference that we witnessed and the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force committee tended to downplay them and we were given the impression there were no concerns about foreign interference.”O’Toole told the commission he did not believe irregularities by foreign agents affected the outcome in all 338 federal ridings but said the limited scope did not justify federal secrecy.“Five to nine seats I think were possibly changed as a result of foreign interference, narrow margin seats where we had large numbers of people not voting and suspicions about voter suppression in those specific seats,” he said.“It was certainly nowhere near enough to change the results of the election but for people in those seats, if they were undergoing intimidation or suppression measures, their democratic rights were being trampled on by foreign actors. Certainly it was serious.”“If one person is intimidated in this country with respect to exercising their democratic rights, that is concerning. The results of the election itself and how many seats are in the House of Commons, that is very important as well. But we shouldn’t look past ridings that could be impacted.”Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who was named as a target of Chinese Communist Party agents in the 2021 campaign, told the commission he felt like Canadian election monitors left him to drown. “The government doesn’t seem to care,” Chiu testified. “I have been betrayed. That is how I see it.” The Commission on Foreign Interference has released numerous internal memos showing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and others believed Chiu was targetted by foreign agents.Chiu said he was not aware of these reports at the time.A week before balloting the CSIS Threats to Elections Task Force wrote a September 13, 2021 memo entitled Foreign Interference Threats that states it “observed what may be a Chinese Communist Party information operation that aims to discourage voters from voting for the Conservative Party.” “Chinese Communist Party media accounts on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, are sharing widely a narrative that the Conservative Party platform suggests Erin O’Toole ‘almost wants to break diplomatic ties with China,’” said the memo. “On September 9 to 12 a number of popular WeChat news accounts that service Chinese speaking Canadians actively shared the narrative that O’Toole wants to break off relations with China.”“Some accounts added commentary such as ‘Chinese Canadians are scared of the Conservatives’ platform' and questioned whether ‘Chinese compatriots should support the Conservatives if they use this rhetoric.”
The Commission on Foreign Interference heard this week the Trudeau Liberals are dismissive of allegations Canadians’ democratic rights ‘were trampled on by foreign actors.’Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole testified foreign interference cost the party “a certain number of seats” in the 2021 election, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.Internal federal memos confirmed Conservatives were targetted by a Chinese language slander campaign claiming O’Toole planned to cut diplomatic relations with Beijing.“It is my view a certain number of seats were lost, yes,” testified O’Toole. “We knew it was happening. Folks within the government knew there was a level of foreign interference occurring. I think we owe it to the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Canadians it was targetted at, we owed it to them to warn them.”“To suggest an election is fair and free from foreign interference is not accurate if some people are impacted whether or not it flipped the result in a riding or in a few ridings. Each vote matters.”O’Toole testified his party was never told of the security warning.“This was not raised to our attention,” he said. “In fact we were raising instances of foreign interference that we witnessed and the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force committee tended to downplay them and we were given the impression there were no concerns about foreign interference.”O’Toole told the commission he did not believe irregularities by foreign agents affected the outcome in all 338 federal ridings but said the limited scope did not justify federal secrecy.“Five to nine seats I think were possibly changed as a result of foreign interference, narrow margin seats where we had large numbers of people not voting and suspicions about voter suppression in those specific seats,” he said.“It was certainly nowhere near enough to change the results of the election but for people in those seats, if they were undergoing intimidation or suppression measures, their democratic rights were being trampled on by foreign actors. Certainly it was serious.”“If one person is intimidated in this country with respect to exercising their democratic rights, that is concerning. The results of the election itself and how many seats are in the House of Commons, that is very important as well. But we shouldn’t look past ridings that could be impacted.”Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who was named as a target of Chinese Communist Party agents in the 2021 campaign, told the commission he felt like Canadian election monitors left him to drown. “The government doesn’t seem to care,” Chiu testified. “I have been betrayed. That is how I see it.” The Commission on Foreign Interference has released numerous internal memos showing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and others believed Chiu was targetted by foreign agents.Chiu said he was not aware of these reports at the time.A week before balloting the CSIS Threats to Elections Task Force wrote a September 13, 2021 memo entitled Foreign Interference Threats that states it “observed what may be a Chinese Communist Party information operation that aims to discourage voters from voting for the Conservative Party.” “Chinese Communist Party media accounts on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, are sharing widely a narrative that the Conservative Party platform suggests Erin O’Toole ‘almost wants to break diplomatic ties with China,’” said the memo. “On September 9 to 12 a number of popular WeChat news accounts that service Chinese speaking Canadians actively shared the narrative that O’Toole wants to break off relations with China.”“Some accounts added commentary such as ‘Chinese Canadians are scared of the Conservatives’ platform' and questioned whether ‘Chinese compatriots should support the Conservatives if they use this rhetoric.”
